A big part of Web 2.0 is the ability to share content, and connect with people just about anywhere. One of the core functions of a congregation is for members to worship and pray together at services. With tools such as USTREAM, congregants can share in this experience, even if they arent able to attend. USTREAM enables congregations to stream video and record in real time. It archives all recorded videos, and allows you to embed them in web pages. Services can then be watched any time, directly on your website. USTREAM is very easy to use, and integrate into your site.

Here are the steps to getting started:

Go to USTREAMs website (http://ustream.tv), and in the upper right hand corner, go to Sign Up.

Fill in information for your new account, including a username and password. You dont need to connect with Facebook, Twitter, or your e-mail at this point. Once you have USTREAM set up, you can then indicate that you want contacts alerted when you broadcast. Fill out information for your profile.

Fill out information for your profile.

You can import e-mail contacts and Twitter followers if you choose to. However, this step doesnt need to be done immediately.

Give your show a name. We recommend just using the name of your congregation. Once youve named it, go to Save My Show.

Fill in some information about your show. At the very least, it is good to add your synagogues name, its logo, and a brief description about what you will be broadcasting. You can also change the design, off air clips, media stream, schedule, metrics, and advanced options, but we will not discuss these options here.

Also, you will need to add a category. Luckily, there is a category for Judaism, under Religion.

Under Share Your Show on the right-hand side of the Your Shows page, copy the code from Live Embed, and paste it into the HTML editor of your site.

When youre ready to begin streaming, go to Broadcast Now on the upper right-hand side of the screen.

If youd like, you can alert your Twitter followers that you are about to start streaming.

Allow USTREAM to access your camera and microphone.

You should now see the following screen (with your own image, or whatever your camera is pointed at).

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Make sure the video and audio broadcasts are both checked.

Press Start Broadcast to begin broadcasting, and if you want it recorded, dont forget to also press Start Record.

Once youre finished, press Stop Broadcast and Stop Record.

To view the video you just streamed (assuming you recorded it), go back to http://ustream.tv, and go to the Your Videos page.

If youd like to embed the video, scroll down to the bottom of the page, select Embed, copy the code, and paste it into the HTML editor of your website.

Post your comments below and let us know how your experience was using this tool, and what other tools you would recommend for video streaming.